Many industrial facilities require convenient access to supplies of water throughout the facility for periodic cleaning of equipment or floors in the facility and for occasional emergency use. Certain dedicated industrial facilities may be designed for water supply at necessary locations. However, most industrial facilities do not include water supplies at all convenient locations. for example, the actual layout of an industrial floor often is completed long after the building is erected and water lines are in place. Thus, water lines typically will be dispersed around the periphery of the building, leaving the central portions of the building, where industrial machines are disposed, with no convenient access to water. Even in specially designed industrial facilities with convenient access to water at important locations, any significant revisions to the industrial plant, such as the periodic replacement of machines, is likely to render the original location of the water supply inefficient and obsolete. this is a particular problem since many industrial facilities frequently upgrade their manufacturing equipment to accommodate the special requirements of new customers or new products.
The changing water supply needs of an industrial facility can be accommodated by re-routing the water pipes in the facility. However, this can be extremely expensive since many components of a water supply system are disposed in walls, subfloors or at below grade locations.
Even if the water supply can be disposed at convenient locations, it is often necessary to employ the water over a fairly broad area. This invariably leads to the use of flexible hoses to provide access to all of the areas which require access to water for periodic cleaning or occasional emergency use. The use of extended flexible hoses in an industrial work place can be hazardous. In particular, employees performing their normal work tasks or travelling between two locations in an industrial work place can trip over an extended hose. Similarly, many industrial work places employ small motorized vehicles for the delivery of supplies tools or the like. Hoses stretched across the paths of travel of such vehicles can result in substantial inconveniences to both the efficient flow of such vehicles and the efficient use of the water supply. Industrial safety and efficiency should absolutely require the hoses to be wound up or otherwise stored between successive uses of the hose. This periodic winding and unwinding adds significantly to labor time and costs, and invariably results in periodically twisted and tangled hoses which further add to manufacturing inefficiencies and safety hazards.
The prior art includes many devices intended to facilitate the use of hoses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 579,777 which issued to Sergeant on Mar. 30, 1987 shows the use of rigid suspended fittings having inlet and outlet ends angularly separated from one another by about 140.degree.. The opposed ends of the rigid fitting permit threaded interconnection of hose sections thereto. Each fitting includes means for threadably receiving a bolt, which in turn permits a horizontal plate or a C-shaped yoke to be attached to the rigid fitting. The horizontal plate can be slideably received between a pair of opposed C-shaped channels, while the yoke can be slideably placed over a rail. A plurality of such fittings with a corresponding plurality of short hose sections are employed to permit the hose to be selectively extended or retracted somewhat along the length of the C-shaped channels or rails. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 579,777 the assembly invariably would be very difficult to fully retract and could lead to an interentanglement of the adjacent hose sections that would prevent either complete retraction or easy extension of the assembly. Furthermore, the horizontal plates or C-shaped yokes intended to slide along the C-shaped channels or rails would be subject to substantial friction forces, resulting in jams and a binding of the plates or yokes on the channels or rails.
The prior art also includes references which are intended to permit the movement of a suspended hose through a single circular arc relative to a central supply of water. Examples of such prior art are shown in: U.S. Pat. Nos. 543,709 which issued to Simpson on July 30, 1895; 566,853 which issued to Foreman on Sept. 1, 1896; 570,890 which issued to Baird on Nov. 3, 1896; 589,345 which issued to Emery on Aug. 31, 1897 and 604,898 which issued to Green et al. on May 31, 1898. These various devices employ only a single length of hose which is inconveniently and hazardously suspended from a ceiling to a location adjacent a floor. The range of movement of this single length of hose is limited to the circumference of a selected circle. Retraction of the hose is not permitted by this prior art.
The prior art also includes swivel-type attachments for a reel upon which a hose may be coiled. This prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 1,046,909 which issued to Wagner on Dec. 10, 1912 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,752,198 which issued to Crow on June 26, 1956. The winding of the hoses onto these reels is difficult and time-consuming, and the hoses would be hazardously disposed on the floor during use.
The prior art includes hose assemblies for mounting to two members that may periodically be moved apart, such as the air hoses that would connect adjacent railway vehicles. Prior art of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,034,558 which issued to Bronson on Mar. 17, 1936 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,170,557 which issued to Guarnaschelli on Aug. 22, 1939.
Swivel connections are also shown in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,831,709 which issued to Shaw et al. on Apr. 22, 1958 shows a swing joint coupling where hose sections are threadably mounted into respective halves of a coupling, with the coupling halves being pivotally mounted to one another. Each half of the coupling includes a generally circumferentially extending fluid carrying channel which permits communication between the two halves of the coupling regardless of the angular orientation of the coupling halves. Another version of a swivel connector for hoses is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,690 which issued to Drath on Mar. 20, 1984.
The prior art further includes many devices which permit the movement of suspended articles along guideways. One example of a system of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,577,930 which issued to Rooklyn on May 11, 1971. Systems of this type for moving articles along a guideway system generally have not been successfully employed in the prior art for systems of hoses.
In view of the above, it is an object of the subject invention to provide an assembly for facilitating the movement of a supply of water into any of a plurality of locations.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide an assembly for facilitating access of water hoses in an industrial work place without placing the hoses on the floor of the work place.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide an assembly which obviates the need to periodically rewind a hose.
Still a further object of the subject invention is to provide an assembly comprising an array of interconnected hoses that can rapidly be extended or completely retracted without interentanglement of the hose sections.
Still an additional object of the subject invention is to provide an assembly with interconnected hoses that can efficiently and quickly be moved along a rail without binding.
Another object of the subject invention is to provide an interconnected assembly of hoses that can readily be removed from a rail to provide a wider range of uses for the assembly.